Wind, sun, and festive fun at RYA Scotland Winter Champs 2024

A mixed bag of wind conditions didn’t hamper any close racing at our RYA Scotland Winter Championships over the weekend.

Forty intrepid young sailors took to the water at Blairvadach Outdoor Centre across 6 Youth & Junior Pathway Classes for an invitational and residential competition.

Reflecting on the weekend, RYA Scotland Pathway Manager Jamie Rogers said:

“It’s been great to bring so many of you together in one place this weekend, getting the community together like this is really special. We hope everyone enjoyed it and can take some reflections away from this weekend to apply to their sailing journey going forward.

“The team feel has been brilliant, and we can’t wait to see everyone back on the water at our upcoming academies and again next year!””

With arrival and set up taking place on Friday evening… it looked like some blustery conditions were set to build overnight. And build they did, with a solid breeze throughout the morning allowing sailors to put their heavy wind sailing to the test.

Even stronger gusts in the afternoon meant just the older IlCA fleet returned to the water post lunch, for some valuable training instead of racing.

Sunday proved much more mellow, with all classes getting in some solid racing under some winter sun ahead of a festive prizegiving and thanks from our Pathway team to all participants, parents, officials, coaches and volunteers for helping the weekend run smoothly.

Take a look at the top results below, or head to Sailwave for the full rundown.

A huge well done and thank you to all those involved on and off the water.

We were thrilled to see such a positive team feel throughout the weekend, with everyone working together and collaborating postively. Additionally, we were pleased to see the impact of the residential element on sailors, with the extra time spent together allowing for some all important team bonding over a festive Saturday night meal.

There was even opportunity to showcase a special video our Pathway team has been collating in the hope of inspiring our young sailors by highlighting the many diverse routes on offer in the sailing world…

Interested? You can check out the full vid on YouTube now… or keep an eye on our socials, where we’ll be sharing some snippets over the coming weeks.